U.S.- based small reactor developer NuScale, majority owned by Fluor Engineering, said Friday that it would work with British industrial Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited (SFIL) to create a demonstration reactor vessel head by the end of 2017 that will support small modular reactor development in the United Kingdom.
The partnership underscores NuScale Power's ambitions to create a Britain-based domestic and international business in small modular reactors. To do so requires first teaming up with British, on-the-ground industrial companies that can formulate a viable supply line and a manufacturing center.
“Our vision of seeing the NuScale SMR deployed in, and exported from, the UK can and will only be achieved in partnership with Britain's renowned engineering and industrial base,” said NuScale Power's Managing Director of Britain and Europe Tom Mundy.
“Sheffield Forgemaster's skill, expertise, and heritage is known the world over. Working together now is, I hope, the starting point of a lasting relationship that will ultimately see UK-manufactured SMRs generating clean, reliable power for the UK grid by the 2020s”
SFIL's work has support from Innovate UK, a British research and development program, in this case to develop and validate innovative forging and fabrication solutions for the nuclear industry. NuScale is providing funding to support the use of the geometries required by its innovative SMR design.
Factory manufacturing of major engineered components is central to realizing the job and growth potential of SMRs across the UK and to bring down costs through advanced manufacture techniques, NuScale said. SFIL, meanwhile, has a long history in manufacturing large steel components for heavy engineering and nuclear power applications.
The company's Chief Executive Officer Graham Honeyman also sees a future in SRM power generation. “Small modular reactors could revolutionize the civil power industry, by creating more flexible power generation solutions,” Honeyman said. “The efficient factory manufacture of major components will be crucial to seeing them deployed cost-effectively, and Sheffield Forgemasters has an unparalleled track record in production of civil nuclear forging of this size.”
In the United States, NuScale is the only SMR developer to be currently receiving U.S. Department of Energy match funding ($217 million over five years) and the only SMR developer close to submitting a Design Certification Application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The company expects the Design Certification Application to be submitted sometime this year.
The first SMR deployment is scheduled to be in operation by 2024 in the stae of Idaho.